Apology from professor fired over tweet about Harvey hitting Texas

WINTER PARK, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A former University of Tampa professor who lives in Winter Park, Florida apologized Tuesday for a tweet that implied Tropical Storm Harvey was payback for Texans who supported President Donald Trump.

Ken Storey posted from his personal account Sunday, "I don't believe in instant karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesn't care about them."

“There’s a lot of people out there who are very upset with what I said and I want them to know it’s not what I intended,” he told FOX 35 in an interview Tuesday night.

The backlash to the tweet was pretty much instant. Storey lost his job at the University and is getting death threats.

He says he realized his words were insensitive considering more than a dozen people have died in the tropical storm.

“At the time, I was talking about climate change and I was upset about what was happening but at this point that doesn’t matter, at this point what matters is how people took the tweet and for that I do apologize,” he said.

Storey says he’s moved his family out of their Winter Park home for safety. Bottom line, he says he wishes he could take the post back.

“Realizing now how a quick that thought that I posted has hurt people – it’s, it’s very heartbreaking to me and I, I never intended it to be that,” Storey explained.

Storey taught sociology at the university. He says he’s not sure what’s next for him, he’s just taking it day by day.